and Carpenteria monticularis. 175 



excepting that the aperture pointed out conjecturally in the 

 former belonged to another animal, as no such thing exists 

 in the specimen of Gypsina melohesioides under consideration, 

 where the cavities of the cells ai-e, as usual, lined by sarcode 

 (assuming a dark brown colour when dry), but communicate 

 with the exterior in no other way than that mentioned, viz. 

 through the foraminated plates of the cells. 



In its mode of extension Gypsina melohesioides is veiy 

 like Melohesia lichenoides^ spreading under a thallaceous 

 form with a thin margin ; but it is easily distinguished from 

 Melohesia by the closed cells of the latter, and especially by 

 the conceptacles, if there are any present. It is also, in ap- 

 pearance, very like the white crust of a G^rgonia^ from which 

 it is also easily distinguished by the latter being composed of 

 the usual form of spino-tuberculated spicule. 



Thus we have at last come upon a thallophytic species of 

 Foraminifera, whose cells being foraminated instead of closed 

 points out the usual distinction between animals and plants, 

 while, like many other lower animals, it still presents a plant- 

 like form. Where are we to look for the " single nucleus " 

 here ? 



There is a fossil variety of Gypsina from the Miocene of 

 Jamaica, of which specimens have been submitted to me for 

 examination by Mr. H. B. Brady, who, following Dr. Car- 

 penter's nomenclature, has called it " Tinoporus pilaris''^ 

 (Survey Mem. Geol. Jamaica, pt. ii., West-Indian Survey, 

 p. 334). This does not appear to differ in any way from the 

 living spheroidal variety except in its greater size, the largest 

 sent being just one sixth of an inch in diameter. 



Carpenteria monticularis. 



With reference to my communication " On the Branched 

 Form of the Apertural Prolongation from the Summit of 

 Carpenteria monticularis ''^ ('Annals,' 1877, vol. xx. p. 68), 

 I might further observe that Squamulina scopula and its 

 variety ramosa (' Annals,' 1870, vol. v. p. 309, pi. iv., & 

 p. 389) appear to me to be the arenaceous representatives 

 of the Carpenter ice. Like Carpenteria they have a multilo- 

 cular conical base, each utricle of which opens at the summit 

 into a common tube, that is prolonged upwards into a single or 

 branched form, according to the species ; while the extremities 

 of tlie branches are beset with projecting spicules, pincushion- 

 like, which are often simulated by the accumulation of spicules 

 in the free ends of the branches both of Carpenteria and 



